TURA: The Garo National Liberation Army (GNLA) has absolved itself of all blame for students missing out on their HSSLC and SSLC examinations during their dawn-to-dusk bandh call on Monday and in turn blamed certain Garo Hills NGOs including the GSU for failing to arrange vehicles to ferry candidates to their respective examination centres.
“We had informed GSU president Tengsak Momin to arrange vehicles for the students who were appearing for the exams well ahead of the bandh,” GNLA joint publicity secretary, Garo Mandei Ch Marak said in a statement adding it had even allowed the use of bikes and scooters so that students appearing for exams from remote areas could reach their exam centres without any hassle.
Stating that it was merely demanding the suspension of those officers responsible for carrying out the fake encounter at Oragitok, Marak said that the GSU as well as other NGOs would do well to put pressure on the government to punish the guilty police officials than to appeal for the lifting of the bandh.
He said that there would be no hindrance to the student community as they have been exempted from the purview of the bandh and firmly asserted that the indefinite bandh at Ampati would continue until the government responded to its demand.
Marak claimed responsibility for the blank firing that took place at a school in Rabhagre under Tikkrikila stating that the outfit was forced to do so as the school authority had called the police and classes were going on despite knowing about the bandh.
He said that the bandh call by the outfit was justified and said, “Killing innocent civilians in the name of law will not go without serious consequences and we will not be silent spectators. If police want, let them fight with us, not with unarmed innocent people.”
Garo Mandei also questioned if there was any law in the police department to induct the surrendered militants for operations.
“The individuals who surrender have already left the organization defying arms and violence to live an ordinary life as good citizens. Is it not wrong on the part of police to use these men to hunt down innocent people?” he said and alleged that the person responsible for the recent killing of Sengbath Ch Marak was none other than surrendered GNLA cadre, Mingran T Sangma.
